The best golfing events - and how to watch them

This year's best golfing events, and how you can be there to witness them.

The Open Championship

July 19-22, Royal Lytham & St Annes, Lancashire

Three of the world’s top golfers and the reigning Open champion, Darren Clarke , are all from Britain and Northern Ireland, so the chances of another home victory this year are probably as high as they have been for many years. A British win would be the first at Royal Lytham since Tony Jacklin’s in 1969, but the course hasn’t been kind to home-grown golfers; although the Open has been held at Lytham 10 times, Jacklin remains the only British player to have triumphed there. Bobby Jones, Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros are among the champions from overseas. Lytham is a relatively compact course, so it is advisable to arrive early to get a good viewing point (and to find parking).

Tickets to the Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes (01253 724206, royallytham.org/open_2012) cost from £60 a day for access to the course to £660 for a Greenside Club ticket for the whole week (01334 460000, tickets.randa.org ). Accommodation can be arranged through visitlancashire.com/open2012 .

As Tom Watson proved when he so nearly won the Open at Turnberry three years ago at the age of 59, the great names of the past can still play golf of the very highest calibre. Watson will be back at the Ayrshire course for the first time since 2009, along with Greg Norman and Nick Price – both former Turnberry champions. The Seniors Open is a fabulous chance to get close to the course and players, without the crowds of a major event.

Tickets to the tournament, which include parking and a champagne lunch, cost from £95 from Turnberry Resort (01655 333996, turnberryresort.co.uk). The hotel is fully-booked during the tournament, but Turnberry is an hour’s drive from Glasgow (for accommodation, see visitscotland.com, and search South Ayrshire ).

Ryder Cup

September 25-30, Medinah Country Club, Chicago

In recent years, the biennial Ryder Cup tournaments, in which Europe and the United States compete, have produced some extraordinarily dramatic golf – and a unique atmosphere stirred by fiercely partisan spectators. The US team has lost only three times when playing at home, and this year, at the fearsome No 3 course at Medinah, Chicago, it will be desperate to avenge its one-point defeat at Celtic Manor in 2010. To do so, though, it will have to beat a European team whose players dominate the higher echelons of the world rankings. Game on.

Thomson Sport (0845 121 2018, thomsonsport.com) is offering a five-night package to the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club (001 630 773 1700, medinahcc.org) from £2,465 per person , based on two sharing. The price includes return direct flight from London to Chicago, accommodation at a four-star hotel, admission on four days (one practice day and the three days of competition), course transfers and an evening reception.

Seve Day

October 2012, Europe-wide

Before he died of a brain tumour in May last year, Seve Ballesteros set up a foundation, in partnership with Cancer Research UK, to raise money for medical research into brain cancer and alert people to the importance of the cause. Several fund-raising events have already taken place, and this year the website yourgolftravel.com has inaugurated a month-long, Europe-wide competition in support of the foundation. Golfers who enter (during July 2012) will play a competitive round at any convenient course, and those with the top 100 scores (after handicaps are taken into consideration) will be invited to a final at Celtic Manor, in South Wales, in October. The prize will be a visit to the US Masters in Augusta.

The entry fee is £25, and you can register for the competition and find more information at seveday.com . Details of the foundation can be found at seveballesterosfoundation.org/uk .

DP World Tour Championship

November 22-25, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai

The Ryder Cup has the potential for an exciting finish, but it may still be outshone by the culminating event of the European Tour, in Dubai, which features the top 60 golfers competing for $8 million (about £5 million) of prizes. Because of the amount of money at stake, the entire season can turn on this event, held on the Greg Norman-designed Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates . Last year, Luke Donald fended off Rory McIlroy to clinch the unique feat of topping both the European and US money lists.

ITC Sports (01244 355390, itcsports.com) offers five nights’ b&b in a Palm Deluxe Room at the Desert Palm, return flight from London (departing on November 20), and course transfers each day for four days, from £1,498 per person. Not included are the four-day passes to the course, which cost about £200 per person.

Swiss snow golf

January 10-13, 2013, St Moritz

Just a bit of fun, perhaps, but a good excuse nevertheless to head here during the ski season. The Winter Golf Tournament has been held at Mulets Sports Centre by Lake Silvaplana since 1996. The course comprises nine par-three holes, each between 130 and 200 yards long, and is played, as far as possible, according to R&A rules, using brightly-coloured balls (for obvious reasons) and “greens” of hard-packed snow. The main event, which anyone with a handicap can enter, is on the Sunday.

Entry to the course costs from about £20 (00 41 81 838 6000 , silvaplana@estm.ch), although full details are not available until next season. Double rooms at the new Nira Alpina hotel (00 41 81 838 6969, niraalpina.com), overlooking Lake Silvaplana and near the Corvatsch cable car, cost from £350.